Deputy’s retirement will end dispute with Baldwin
Sielaff, longtime officer who had faced dismissal, settles case with county
By MIKE JOHNSON
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Nov. 14, 2001
A deputy sheriff who was facing dismissal for violating department rules for leveling unfounded allegations against fellow deputies and criticizing Sheriff Lev Baldwin will retire Dec. 5 under a settlement approved Tuesday.
Under the deal, Richard C. Sielaff, a deputy for more than 34 years, will retain his pension benefits and receive about $10,000 in back pay stemming from when he was suspended Aug. 31 without pay for allegedly violating rules.
Sielaff had been scheduled for a termination hearing Tuesday before the county’s Personnel Review Board on the internal charges. The agreement was finalized shortly before the hearing, and the deal was unanimously approved by the board.
Had he been terminated, Sielaff’s pension benefits could have been reduced or denied. He also might not have received back pay.
Both Sielaff and county officials were pleased with the agreement.
“I’m pleasantly surprised by the ability of the sheriff to go along with this agreement as brokered by my attorney,” said Sielaff, who earned about $51,000 a year.
“It was fair,” said Mary Ellen Poulos, principal assistant corporation counsel for the county. “I hope he feels it was fair. He’s been a longtime employee.”
Baldwin said the agreement “was the best thing for the department and Sielaff.”
Sielaff had faced internal charges stemming from a series of criticisms of Baldwin and the department and unfounded allegations against officers. The agreement stipulates that the charges were “well founded.”
Those criticisms were first aired in the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association’s newsletter and later in the Shepherd Express. Sielaff said there were many stories of “vindictive actions, transfers and selective discipline.”
Sheriff’s supervisors ultimately sought disciplinary action, prompting Sielaff to level nine allegations of impropriety against the Sheriff’s Department. The district attorney’s office found no merit in eight of the allegations and referred one, a patrol boat purchase, to the county’s Ethics Board, which cleared the department.
Shortly after the August decision by the Ethics Board, Sielaff was suspended without pay, and the sheriff sought his dismissal.
Sielaff’s attorney, Thomas G. Halloran, said a major issue in the case was the suspension without pay for leveling criticism at the department.
“The threat of being suspended without pay is a heavy hammer,” Halloran said, one that could have a “chilling effect” on employees who want to speak out.
Sielaff has agreed to drop court action he filed related to the suspension without pay.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 14, 2001.